Learning to Read by Leah Evjen-Bryan, Hope Resource Director
I love to read! The shorter days and temperamental weather of fall provide a good opportunity to cozy up and work on my reading stack.
I would like to invite you, for a moment, to think about how complicated learning to read is. For some children learning to read is quite simple; it seems to just happen with little effort. For the majority of children, that is not true. Over fifty percent of children need explicit instruction involving phonics; five to twenty percent of learners need multisensory structured sequential instruction to become successful readers.
At the very foundation of reading is phonemic awareness – the ability to identify and manipulate individual sounds in spoken language. If you read nursery rhymes with your young ones, you are playing with sounds and syllables in words, helping children develop an ear for spoken and written language. As children get older, morphological awareness plays a larger role. Morphological awareness is an understanding of how words can be broken down into smaller units of meaning such as roots, prefixes and suffixes. It is an important contributor to multi-syllable word reading and comprehension skills. A simple example can be found in the spelling of the word jumped. Many children will spell it with what they hear, a /t/ sound at the end of the word. However, if a student thinks about what the word means (something done in the past), they would apply morphological awareness to determine that the suffix -ed is added to the end of a word to show past tense. In middle school you can apply morphological awareness to words with a Latin root, adding prefixes and suffixes to form words like reform, reforming, reformation, increasing word knowledge as well as vocabulary, on a much higher level.
These are things I think of when I approach working with our students either one on one or in small reading groups. The science behind reading is deep and accessible. If I have sparked an interest in learning more about reading and launching young readers, an excellent website for parents is www.readingrockets.org. Later this week, I will be attending the International Dyslexia Conference online, gathering more research and practical ideas to help all our students at Hope become successful readers. If you have any questions about launching your young reader or about difficulties learning to read, please feel free to reach out to me at levjen-bryan@hopeseattle.org. I wish you all happy reading!
Calendar of Events – Click Here
Wed. 11/11: No School & No Preschool/ESC – Veterans Day
Wed. 11/18: 8:40 AM Online Chapel Led by Mr. Kopecky
Fri. 11/20: 9:00 – 11:00 AM School Picture Retake Day
Wed. 11/25: Noon Dismiss for Thanksgiving Break / ESC & Sand Dollar Club Closes at 3:00 PM for Thanksgiving Break / Last day of Trimester 1
Thur. & Fri. 11/26 & 11/27: No School / No ESC – Thanksgiving Break
Extended School Care & Sand Dollar Club Closures
Please note that our Extended School Care and Sand Dollar Club will not be open tomorrow in observance of Veteran’s Day.
Please also note that our Extended School Care and Sand Dollar Club will be closing at 3:00 PM on Wednesday, 11/25; both programs will be open before school.
We will be closed Thursday & Friday 11/26 & 11/27 in observance of Thanksgiving.
Hope All School Virtual Open House – November 17, 2020 @ 6 pm
It is a fact that the majority of new families that seek out Hope School do so because a friend referred them or encouraged them to check us out. You, our families, are our biggest cheerleaders, and we thank you! We will be hosting a virtual all school open house November 17th and need your help to spread the word far and wide. Invite your friends and family members to log on and see what Hope School is all about. Register to attend the event.
School Pictures Retake Day Nov. 20
Please note that our retake day is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 20 from 9:00 to 11:00 am. Students who were absent will have pictures taken this day. If you feel you need a retake, bring your first picture packet in on picture retake day to return to photographer.
You can still order on www.my.lifetouch.com and enter your Picture Day ID EVTZPBJV
Parent Involvement Program or PIP Opportunities – Click Here
Ways to Support Hope School:
Holiday Shopping With Scrip
There are many ways to order scrip and support Hope Lutheran School.
- Shopwithscrip.com
- Paper order from (available at Hope’s website under Parents, then Scrip)
- RaiseRight App (Enrollment code: 1C27LC3812L43)
Earn 1 PIP hour when you purchase $200 of scrip in a month.
AmazonSmile
Hope Lutheran Church & School will receive a portion of the purchase price when you shop at www.smile.amazon.com at no cost to you. It’s a simple and automatic way for you to support Hope Lutheran Church & School and you’ll find the exact same low prices, vast selection and convenient shopping experience as Amazon.com. To shop at AmazonSmile, simply go to smile.amazon.com from the web browser on your computer or mobile device, then select Hope Lutheran Church & School – West Seattle when prompted. Hope Church & School operate under a combined budget; Smile dollars received will be recorded in a joint line item in the operating budget. Thank you for your support!
Church Happenings – Click Here
Giving Tree Continues to November 15
It’s time for the annual Giving Tree! Here is what Giving Tree looks like this year: Because we are not gathering in-person for church, we will not have an actual tree to choose actual tags from. Instead, we are asking for monetary donations to help HCM purchase all the gifts. Most tags average about $100. Any donation amount would be welcomed! Please make gifts by November 15, and please pray for this ministry.
*To donate directly to Human Care Ministry, please click HERE – https://www.shelbygiving.com/App/Giving/hopeseattle or click on GIVE and choose Human Care Ministry.
Seattle Lutheran High School Annual Greenery Fundraiser is underway now!
It’s time to order Christmas greenery & poinsettias! Seattle Lutheran Parents Association can help you with home decor, gifts for friends / family / clients. Order link is below. Pick up is Saturday, Nov 21 from 9am – 1pm at the Menashe Gymnasium located at Seattle Lutheran High School.
Order deadline is November 15. Click below to place your order!
https://form.jotform.com/203028536978161
